5 Saudi troops killed in Yemeni retaliatory attack

Five Saudi border guards have been killed in retaliatory attacks launched by Yemeni forces backed by allied Popular Committees.

The troops were killed by Yemeni sniper fire in two separate attacks on the Saudi borders regions of Raboah and Khobah on Wednesday.

Earlier, Yemeni forces launched a ballistic missile at a Saudi-led mercenary base located in the district of Nihm close to the Yemeni capital Sana’a.

Some sources put the number of mercenaries killed and injured in the attack at around 50.

Such attacks are carried out in retaliation for Saudi Arabia’s aggression against Yemen which was launched on March 26, 2015 in a bid to reinstate the former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and defeat the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

A Yemeni boy rides his bicycle in front of buildings that were damaged by Saudi airstrikes on March 23, 2016 in the UNESCO-listed old city of the Yemeni capital Sana’a. (AFP)

On Tuesday, a local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Saudi-backed mercenaries had burned 50 civilians to death in the village of Sarari in Yemen’s Ta’izz province.

The mercenaries also destroyed over 50 houses after looting them in the village, and arrested 38 people, including women and children, according to the official.

The Saudi-backed forces also fired several rockets at Sarari homes overnight.

More than 9,400 people have been killed and at least 16,000 others sustained injuries since the onset of the aggression.